When Pete Wentz decided to leave hard-core band Arma Angelus and form Fall Out Boy, he had an agenda.
"I wanted to play music that was more poppy than what I was doing in Arma," Wentz said by phone from Iowa City, Iowa. "That was all we thought about at the time."
The band — bassist Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, vocalist Patrick Strump and drummer Andy Hurley — didn't have any aspirations other than play music. "That's why it was weird coming from a place with no pressure to one that had nothing but pressure," Wentz said about the growing success of Fall Out Boy. "We've seen bands live and die, but for some reason, we're continuing."
One of the pressures that has developed with Fall Out Boy comes from the press. "We are living under a microscope. Our every move is watched. We can't just live life. We will always be followed. It's like living in a reality TV show. I can't go to a friend's band gig unless I'm watching from backstage. Because people are starting to recognize me, and I don't want to distract from my friends."
Still, Wentz and his band are holding strong to their beliefs and are making their own decisions when it comes to music. "We write songs as a band. And consequently, we write slowly. We don't want to be a band that writes a song that we will regret for the rest of our lives.
"We don't write a song a day. We take our time, making sure it's what we want it to sound like. Songs represent the band. And we don't want to make any mistakes. It goes back to that microscope thing again."
Wentz said the new songs are a reflection of the band today. "We have matured as people and songwriters. The last record we made, some of the songs were written with the tension between Patrick and me. We write the majority of the songs, and we were dealing with learning how to work with each other. This time around, it's become a smooth process and we can handle ourselves better."
One thing that Wentz doesn't want to do is force a song to be written. "It wouldn't be natural for us to do that. It would be phony. And you can't be phony and feel good about yourself.
"I want this band to reach as many people as possible. We have something to say, and I want people to see us. And in thinking about that, it would be stupid for us to write songs just for a certain type of audience. We don't want to just target teens or young adults. We want to appeal to everyone, if that's possible, without losing who we are."
If you go. . .
What: Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Matchbox Romance
Where: Utah State Fairpark
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
How much: $16.50
Phone: 467-8499 or 1-800-8499
E-mail: scott@desnews.com